GENRE: Features

  What’s I Got Garbage today? IGG is an initiative in the area of Solid Waste Management (SWM) and waste-picker livelihood. It aims to help cities to manage their waste better with the involvement of four major stakeholders: the government, social and NGOs, citizens, and waste-pickers. IGG partners with several organisations in the waste sector in Bengaluru including Hasiru Dala, the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), the Clean City Recyclers Association (CCRA), and Waste Wise Management and Consulting Services (WWM&CS). It is based on a cloud digital platform that offers suite of integrated business services, accessed by easy-to-use mobile…

Our first reaction when we see litter on the streets, dump yards along our highway or near our home, street animals eating the bits of rubbish along with the plastic covers:  Uuhgghh….!! Can anything at all be done to end this? Can’t the government do something to clean up? Can we stop rampant garbage burning? Only about 25% of the waste generated in Chennai is treated, the rest is merrily added to the waste dumps, creating pollution and in-turn affecting our health. Can we do something about this? Exploring these questions, some of us at Bhumi NGO decided to start by…

Come summer, newspapers across the country faithfully remind us of the dire state of the depleting water-tables in our cities, touching scarier levels each year. Living in our ivory towers as we do, water tankers shield us from reality. Some believe that the rains will naturally resolve matters. The stark reality is that mismanagement of water-resources, illegal bore-wells, rampant misuse of potable water for construction, disrupted storm-water drains/water channels – all ensure that groundwater recharge is severely impacted. With a spiralling demand-supply gap, the water problems of every Indian city are set to assume nightmarish proportions unless immediate action is…

Hear about her journey from working in the garment industry to learing to drive an auto and then to driving an auto for hire. She now has her own auto with support from a bank loan. She talks about how her life, experience, learnings and the interactions will different people she comes across every day.

The month was January and Chennai was reeling in the aftermath of Cyclone Vardah. In Royapuram, as in other areas, the extensive damage caused to tree cover left residents shocked and distressed. So, when a group of members of the Dawoodi Bohra community decided to celebrate the birthday of their late spiritual leader, His Holiness Dr Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb by doing something for society at large, reversing the destruction wrought by the storm was on top of their minds. “One of us took it upon himself to study tree planting in the city and that was how we all came…

In the third week of February, a horrifying incident of child sexual assault was reported from a playschool belonging to a popular franchise in Bengaluru. In this particular case, the parents of the child reported the incident with the police and the perpetrator was arrested, the playschool was shut down. The main accused in this case was the school supervisor. Meanwhile, the parents of the victim alleged that the school management had also tried to cover up the matter when they were informed about the incident of sexual assault. A case under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)…

“He doesn’t want to leave yet! He hasn’t even had his breakfast, but in his enjoyment, he’s forgotten his hunger!” Mrs. Lalitha, a resident of T Nagar, thus ended up spending the entire morning at Pondy Bazaar with her seven-year-old son Pranav. Pranav, who has nobody at home to play with, found not just games, but also company and a lot of space in T Nagar to keep him entertained. His mother, who also participated in the games, reliving her childhood days, enjoyed a fun-filled, nostalgic shopping trip.   This alternate shopping experience was on the occasion of the second…

You are a runner. The customary weekend long run is underway, when suddenly it dawns upon you at the 20th kilometre that you were supposed to get your periods today. Hmmmmmm. May be you are getting it right now, but you are sweating, your nose is running and the body is complaining, so you don’t know for sure if it is the monthly disaster that has commenced (so soon?) or whether these are the aches and pains of a long run. If you have never found yourself in the above scenario, you are likely to be a man. Even if…

As we have seen in an earlier article, the Government of India, as it works to implement the Smart City Initiative of the MOUD, has realised the need for a paradigm shift in education and recruitment of urban municipal staff in the country. Perhaps in alignment with this perceived need, the NDA government is reportedly set to take architecture education out of the purview of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and allocate it to the Urban Development Ministry, as reported by The Indian Express recently. It is further reported that this was despite the HRD Ministry’s opposition to…

Real estate makes for booming business in Chennai as well as the rest of India despite recent setbacks. Many people want to own a house or buy one for tax-saving reasons. Chennai being a metropolis currently witnesses fewer individual houses being constructed and more transactions of apartments or similar buildings. This means that it is not only enough to verify the land registration and encumbrance certificates, but also a host of other required certificates from the town planning authority, CMDA, and others. How do builders fare in this? Not very well if court cases are an indication. The Madras High…